To celebrate Carnival the Doodlebugs and Picassos both made Tan Tan puppets! Of course the Doodlebugs had a bit more help putting theirs together but the beauty of this project is that it was simple enough for the little ones to tackle and yet it was also able to engage my older kiddos!

They were all equally fascinated by the movement of the puppet but to put it into perspective we spoke about Peter Minshall's Tan Tan and Saga Boy and I even found an old video of their Dimanche Gras performance for the children to see them live in action! I also learnt that Machel Montano gets waaaay too much credit from these kiddos... when asked to guess who created Tan Tan and Saga Boy most of them were convinced it had to be Machel. lol!

So today they got to explore that good old element of art - form, that we don't often get to delve into, but when we do it's always a Red bull kind of day, but in a good way! They made accordion legs and arms, created faces and clothes for their puppets and we helped the younger group stick the puppet parts together while the Picassos took on everything from start to finish, including using the glue guns under my close supervision... which they totally loved ;) While we worked we also talked about how much work it is to get a mas band put together and asked them to imagine all the people who make headpieces and other parts of costumes and what their jobs must be like!

There may not be very many action shots because as you can appreciate we needed all hands on deck... as a matter of fact I didn't even get pics of most of my Doodlebugs with their completed Tan Tan Puppets :/ but we tried our best to show you a bit of what took place! Shout out to all the aunties, mamas, daddies and grandparents who took on the task of tying the strings for the Doodlebug puppets! A big thank you :)

This year for Valentine's Day I thought I'd get my Picassos into a piece that was a bit more meaningful. They each had to find a quote about kindness and bring it to class or come up with one on their own! We then created 1/2 face portraits of them holding up a sign with their words written on it. Of course they all gawked that they couldn't possibly draw themselves... but as usual they put their trust in me (bless them lol) and we took it one step at a time. I showed them how to sketch a basic face and brought out mirrors so they could really look at the shape of their faces and their eyes and eyebrows... since that's what we focused on today. But this art piece is much more than portrait making...

We discussed how art can be more than just a beautiful picture. Art can be a form of expression for the artist to make a statement about social issues. I used the example of the role of the calypsonian in our own culture and how the calypsonian through music brings to light things that are both good and bad about our society. I think especially with the violence in our nation's schools and society in general it is a good opportunity to make our children focus on kindness and in essence encourage them to be the change they want to see... a phrase borrowed from another great leader Mahatma Gandhi.

I couldn't think of a better message for Valentine's Day and it was also loaded with great art principles in portrait making! Win, win!

Oh how I love Van Gogh and the Picassos really made me proud with this piece. Irises are not just difficult flowers to draw they are also turned this way and that in this painting... naturally because it is a field and our old friend perspective also comes into play because the relative size of the flowers and the level of detail changes as your eye moves up the painting to give the impression of depth and distance. All these complexities were not lost on my little Picassos :)

Take a look at their completed paintings! If you missed the first part of this lesson you can find it here.

The Doodlebugs finished off their hat paintings today... needless to say the art room was buzzing with excitement and activity. Not only did they dive straight into painting which they rarely get to do but when they were finished I brought out all the supplies to make and decorate their various hats!

There had to be a bit of negotiating because when they saw the gems everyone wanted to glue gems regardless of the hat they chose but then I reminded them they had to choose fun things that would go with their hat :)

Take a look at their completed pieces and if you missed the first part of this lesson you can find it here!